Passengers evacuated using slides at BLR after smoke on taxiing IndiGo aircraft

NEW DELHI: Over 230 people onboard an IndiGo Airbus A321neo were evacuated from the aircraft at Bengaluru airport using emergency slides after there was smoke in the cabin while taxiing to the runway to take off for Chennai. The aircraft was on a taxiway when this smoke scare happened. The DGCA is probing this.

The aviation ministry said in a statement: “IndiGo A321 (VT-IME) while operating flight 6E-6017 (Bengaluru-Chennai) was involved in emergency evacuation of passengers as smoke was reported in cabin/cockpit. After pushback when taxi was commenced smoke was observed in cockpit and cabin. Crew carried emergency evacuation of passengers using all escape slides. During the evacuation process, two passengers received minor injury The aircraft has been grounded for inspection/rectification. DGCA is investigating the incident."

In a statement, IndiGo said: “On May 26, 2026, while IndiGo flight 6E 6017 from Bengaluru to Chennai was taxing out to runway for departure, smoke was noticed in the aircraft. In the interest of safety, an immediate evacuation was carried out and all the relevant authorities were informed. All customers and crew are safe and have been moved to the terminal, where they are being attended to by our teams to ensure their well-being.”

“An alternate aircraft has been arranged to operate the flight which will depart shortly and refreshments are being served to the customers to ease their wait time. At IndiGo, the safety of our customers and crew remains our top priority,” the IndiGo spokesperson added.

This is the second emergency evacuation IndiG has had to carry out so far this month. On May 5, everyone onboard a Hyderabad-Chandigarh flight was evacuated at the destination using slides after a personal electronic device had caught fire.